


Light (Bleeding through the Cracks)

by AceQueenKing



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-15 07:51:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8048323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: He kept waiting for the Wasteland to extinguish the spark in her eyes, to have it ruin her the way it had all the rest but -- It didn't.Until Walden.





	Light (Bleeding through the Cracks)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Masu_Trout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/gifts).



Nick had been on the job a long time, and he was used to seeing people get beat down. There was old Marty, of course. Things there didn't end so good, and he knew some of it was his fault, but a lot of it was just Marty getting tired. Sloppy. Even Ellie, who was a downright peach most of the time - she had her limits, and he knows if she went out on the jobs like he does, her smile might get wiped off her face mighty quick.

But then, he met her. _Nora_. The dame from the Vault, the one who broke him out; the hellcat who's been on the prowl for her baby boy since the day they met. Hell, before they met.

She was the most determined person Nick has ever seen. He was reborn in this wasteland, and it took him years to find a sense of purpose. Nora? She knew it from day one, and he never saw her flinch. Not with raiders, not with the super-mutants, not even with the ghouls.

He kept waiting for the Wasteland to extinguish the spark in her eyes, to have it ruin her the way it had all the rest but --

It didn't.

Until Walden.

\- - -

He knew it was trouble from the moment they walked into the old, too-quiet school. It was infested with ghouls, and he helped Nora take down what surely was the better part of the teaching staff before they were through. It was dark by then, which didn't help - he didn't have ocular units built with nightvision, and they'd been exploring the better half of the school in the dark.

The further they went -- and the more school announcement tapes they found scattered through the school - the quieter Nora got. Normally they'd chit chat on these trips, break the silence with small talk about old stuff - Boston Market, the Nuka Cola theme park they were building before the bombs, Sugar Bombs then vs now, the Sox vs the Yankees - but the further they got, the more often his inquiries were met with little more than half-smiles and nods.

He didn't like it.

"Somethin' eatin' at you, Nora?" He asked, giving her a half smile. "I mean, besides the occasional Ghoul."

"Mm," She said, and then she'd gone running ahead, mowing down a couple radroaches in the cafeteria.

Guess they were right when they said that roaches were gonna inherit the earth.

He watched her bean them with more force than was, strictly, necessary -- and then keep marching ahead.

He didn't talk after that. Instead he just kept one pale yellow eye on her, his servos whirling as he tried to keep up with her.

To her credit, it wasn't until they made it to the Principal's office that she lost it. After they read about the cruel experiments they were runnin' on the poor kids - and faculty, poor sods - Nora stood up and, abruptly, smashed the computer monitor in with her bat.

"Hey," Nick said, raising a hand to grasp her shoulder. She brushed him off, then whacked it again. And again.

"Nora!" He tried to reach her, wanted to -- but she was too far gone, her eyes dark as she swung at it again and again. The monitor crunched under her swing, but Nora swung again.

"Nora, it's a machine. Ain't gonna feel a thing. Trust me on that one."

"God dammit," she muttered. If he'd had blood in his face, he was sure he'd have gone pale at that. Nora wasn't the swearin' kind. "Dammit. Dammit. _Dammit_."

"Hey, Nora?" He raised a hand to her, grabbed her shoulder and squeezed tight. "It's okay. It's okay."

To his surprise, she turned toward him, dropping the bat. It landed on what was left on they keyboard with a crunch, but the noise barely registered over the look on Nora's face.

She was crying; her eyes wet as glass while she sobbed, big galloping breaths. He took a step forward, arm up to grab her shoulder, to steddy her, but she closed the distance between them, holding him in a embrace.

He froze for a second, unprepared, but Nora clung tight to him, and he folded his arms around her own, lightly resting his head on her chin.

"C'mon kid," he said, softly. "It's going to be okay."

She shook her head but didn't reply; for a moment, the only sound she made was soft sobs, and he held on tighter, his hand wandering through her hair. Most people didn't want to touch a synth, but Nora clung tight to him, tight enough for him to smell the lingering traces of perfume that clung to her old Vault uniform -- lilac, vanilla.

"Sweetheart, it's okay," He cooed. "It's okay. Was a long time ago. Like when the Sox lost to the Yankees in the 2036 World Series."

"It's not okay, Nick," She said, her voice half-muted by the heavy fabric of his coat. "Those poor kids... Can you imagine?"

"They were crazy days," He said, though that's not an excuse. Part of him was happy that he didn't remember the last days, before the bombs.

"We were adults, and...we did nothing." She huffed, shaking her head. "Those poor kids."

"Hey, Nora." He strokesd her hair, and even with no biological systems to render it so, his throat felts uncommonly tight. "We didn't know, then. But we can make something of the Wasteland yet."

He brushed a bit of her brass-colored hair away from her face; it was a bit too tender a movement for just a friend, and Nora bit her lip when he did so. For the firstt ime, Nick wondered, for one moment, if there was a future there.

"We can't help them. But we can help the people who are left. We..." His voice crackled a bit, a fault of the electronic frog buried deep within the wires of his exposed throat. "We're gonna find your boy. I promise."

And he meant it. He'll move heaven and hell and earth itself to find her kid.

"I wish...we could have helped them," she said; her voice sounded swollen, stuffed with darkness and he longed for nothing, so much, as to wipe it from her mind.

"Me too." He said. She turned toward the door, and he followed.

They didn't say much, leaving Walden. He tried to ignore the ghouls at their feet, the too-silent cafeteria their boots crunched through on the way to the door.

"You still wanna keep traveling?" He asked as he locked the door - the one thing that they could do for those kids, to give them a silent place to rest. He handed her the key they found in the basement, and she pocketed it. "I could understand if you need a break."

"No," she said, her mouth narrowed into a thin line. "You're right, Nick. We can't help them, but...We can help others."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he said with a smile.

It was still dark as they left, but the sun was rising at their backs. Nick reached out a hand and she took it, and they walked, hand in hand, toward Diamond City. 

They couldn't save the lost. But, Nick thought, maybe, just maybe - they could do something about the future.


End file.
